This book helps you analyze the issues surrounding in-house eDiscovery, so that you can determine what is right for your organization. You’ll see what processes can effectively be brought into your operation, and what challenges you’ll face in implementing those changes. You need to understand as much as you can before you start making decisions!

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Analyze the needs of your business

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About EMCInformation is a business’s most important asset. EMC provides the tools that can help you capitalize on it. By bringing our systems, software, services, and solutions together, we can work with you to put a comprehensive information infrastructure to work for your business.

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With an information infrastructure, people can avoid the potentially serious risks and reduce the significant costs associated with managing information, while fully exploiting its value for business advantage.

We help a range of customersEMC works with organizations around the world, in every industry, in the public and private sectors, and of every size, from startups to the Fortune Global 500. Our customers include banks and other financial services firms, manufacturers, healthcare and life sciences organizations, Internet service and telecommunications providers, airlines and transportation companies, educational institutions, and public-sector agencies. Customers benefit from our expertise in key business and IT capabilities.

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This commitment led to IDC’s designation of EMC as a market leader in the external storage systems, total storage software, and virtualization software markets. According to the Gartner Magic Quadrants, we lead the industry in enterprise content management, midrange enterprise disk arrays, storage resource management, security and information and event management, Web access management, and storage services. We hold the most stringent quality management certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 9001), and our manufacturing operations hold an MRP II Class A certification.

A worldwide presence and global citizenshipWe are represented by more than 100 sales offices and distribution partners in more than 80 countries. We employ more than 33,000 people worldwide, including more than 8,500 at our Massachusetts headquarters. Our R+D organization includes facilities in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Belgium, China, France, India, Israel, Japan, and Russia, with additional manufacturing facilities in California and Ireland. We have the world’s largest storage-dedicated direct sales and service force, and have a large network both of resellers, including Dell, Unisys, and NCR; and alliance partners, including Accenture, EDS, and Microsoft.

We are committed to acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and to being an attentive and thoughtful neighbor in our local and global communities. We are a publicly traded company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and are a component of the S&P 500 Index.

Bringing eDiscoveryIn-House

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by Jake Frazier, Esq., Teresa Luckey, and

Joseph Phillips

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies®, EMC Compliance Practice Special EditionPublished byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030-5774

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Contents at a GlanceIntroduction.......................................................1

Chapter 1: Understanding the Problem ................5

Chapter 2: Assembling a Cross-Functional Task Force .........................................................9

Chapter 3: Communication: Can’t We All Just Get Along?................................................15

Chapter 4: Taking It In or Leaving It Outside .....21

Chapter 5: Selling the Vision Internally .............27

Chapter 6: Building an Implementation Plan......31

Chapter 7: Working with a Quality Policy..........35

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Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................1About This Book .........................................................................2Foolish Assumptions ..................................................................2How This Book Is Organized......................................................3Icons Used in This Book.............................................................4

Chapter 1: Understanding the Problem.................5The Phases of eDiscovery..........................................................5Preservation and Collection ......................................................6Processing....................................................................................7Review and Production ..............................................................7

Chapter 2: Assembling a Cross-Functional Task Force..........................................................9

Putting the Team Together ........................................................9Legal Meet IT, IT Meet Legal ....................................................10Records Management...............................................................12Human Resources .....................................................................13Security ......................................................................................13Lines of Business ......................................................................14

Chapter 3: Communication: Can’t We All Just Get Along? ...........................................15

Skipping the Slang, Junking the Jargon, Axing the Acronyms ........................................................................15

Spend Some Quality Time Together .......................................17Legal Can Learn IT’s Lingo.......................................................17IT Can Learn Legal’s Lingo.......................................................18

Chapter 4: Taking It In or Leaving It Outside ......21Making Up Your Mind about Preservation and Collection ...21Deciding What to Do with Processing....................................23Making the Decision on Review and Production ..................23

The review process ........................................................24Hosting data in the review tool.....................................24The actual review of documents ..................................25

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummiesvi

Chapter 5: Selling the Vision Internally ..............27Using Scare Tactics ...................................................................27Pooling Resources: ROI ...........................................................28

Chapter 6: Building an Implementation Plan ......31Starting from Square One.........................................................31Project Management.................................................................32Establishing a Timeline ............................................................32Setting Milestones for Your Plan.............................................33Paying for Your Plan .................................................................33Training the Staff.......................................................................34Review and Evaluation .............................................................34

Chapter 7: Working with a Quality Policy...........35Slipping into the Sixth Sigma...................................................35Using Homegrown, In-House Quality Solutions ....................37

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Introduction

If the rash of corporate scandals in the early part of thisdecade has taught us one thing, it’s that e-mails live

forever. After seeing corporate executives go to prison basedlargely on e-mail and other digital evidence retrieved fromcomputer systems, virtually every government investigatorand party to a lawsuit wants to get their hands on any potential electronic evidence.

To ensure that nobody gets any bright ideas (“Let’s just deleteeverything!”), various governmental agencies have introducedlaws, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC 17a-4, that set forthdocument retention requirements with very heavy sanctionsfor noncompliance — even jail time! Dozens of courts havelevied costly and embarrassing sanctions on parties of law-suits that couldn’t properly produce their electronic records.The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were even amendedrecently to accommodate and govern this new phenomenonas it relates to litigation. The process that corporations andgovernment agencies go through to search, preserve, andeventually review and produce their relevant electronic datato satisfy their production obligations under these rules isgenerally called electronic discovery, or eDiscovery for short.

Initially, most organizations could barely keep up with their obli-gations to produce data. The last thing on their collective mindswas whether the process they were using made financial senseand could be built upon to make future eDiscovery requests lesspainful. Some thought the issue would be a flash in the pan andwould soon subside. Now that a few years have passed, mostorganizations have come to understand that performingeDiscovery is a cost of doing business that isn’t going away.

Now that eDiscovery is here to stay, enough quantitative datais available to analyze related processing and spending habitsand improve them, just like any other business process. Mostcorporations are firm believers in avoiding future problems by adopting good preventative habits. Think of it as good virtual brushing and flossing to avoid a costly root canaldown the road.

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 2Larger organizations may well find that they spend millions or even tens of millions of dollars per year fulfilling theireDiscovery obligations. Much of this expenditure is allocatedto sending data to outside vendors, consultants, and law firmsfor costly processing and review. Up until now, this was neces-sary because the machinery and equipment, proprietary soft-ware, and expertise simply weren’t readily available for acorporation to purchase and implement successfully. Whenthese became available over the past few years, it was stillsomewhat difficult to internalize. From a budgetary perspec-tive, not enough was known about this phenomenon to makesound financial decisions about obtaining a positive return oninvestment. Now, the time is ripe for many organizations toseriously consider bringing eDiscovery in-house.

About This BookCreating and implementing an eDiscovery solution for yourcompany can be a monumental effort — that’s why some busi-nesses exist to handle the whole process for you. Taking oversome or all of those responsibilities for yourself can be adaunting task. So you need to understand as much as you canbefore you start making decisions.

This book helps you analyze the issues surrounding in-houseeDiscovery, so that you can determine what is right for yourorganization. You’ll see what processes can effectively bebrought into your operation, and what challenges you’ll facein implementing those changes. After all, nobody ever saidsaving money and time was going to be easy.

By the time you’re finished with this book, you should be ableto analyze the needs of your business and decide what por-tions of the eDiscovery process you should perform yourself.Whether your company wants to take on a little or a lot, youat least know the direction to go.

Foolish AssumptionsYou don’t have to be a computer expert to understand thisbook, but we didn’t start from square one, either. So, here’swhat we assume you know before you start reading:

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� You’re generally familiar with eDiscovery and what itentails.

� You know why you might have to retain and producesome of your documents.

� You understand that e-mail, electronic documents, andother records can be stored in a variety of locations.

� Your business makes use of several different forms ofelectronic communication, like computers (both desktopand laptop), PDAs, networked storage, and other devices.

How This Book Is OrganizedThis book is divided into seven chapters for easy navigation.That way, you can either read all the way through the book inorder or skip ahead to what you want to know right now.

� Chapter 1: Understanding the Problem: This sectionbrings eDiscovery into focus for your company andexamines what any successful policy has to achieve inorder to keep your data (and your company) out ofharm’s way.

� Chapter 2: Assembling a Cross-Functional Task Force:This chapter talks about the talent you need in order tobring eDiscovery functions in-house. You find out whohas to be involved and what services they provide.

� Chapter 3: Communication: Can’t We All Just GetAlong?: Here’s where you find out why it’s important to keep the lines of communication open. Clear andunderstandable language is key to keeping the processon-track.

� Chapter 4: Taking It In or Leaving It Outside: You can’thave everything all the time, and this section helps youdecide what functions of eDiscovery make sense to bringinside your company. Leaving something outside yourcompany can be just as important and cost-effective asdoing it yourself.

� Chapter 5: Selling the Vision Internally: This chapterhelps you sell the plan you want to implement to thosewho make the decisions. The best plan isn’t worth anything if you can’t convince anybody to execute it.

Introduction 3

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� Chapter 6: Building an Implementation Plan: Aftereverything is ready, you need to establish a plan for actually putting everything in place. This chapter helpsyou set the guidelines and benchmarks toward bringingeDiscovery into your company’s normal functions.

� Chapter 7: Working with a Quality Policy: The final section takes a look at the Six Sigma process and how it relates to eDiscovery. You may find understanding SixSigma extremely helpful in charting and implementingyour company’s plan. This chapter also includes some information on developing your own in-house quality policy.

Icons Used in This BookIn the margins of this book, you’ll see some helpful little iconsthat help flag particular types of information:

This icon flags information that you should make a definiteeffort to, you guessed it, remember.

A Tip icon stands beside information that can save you timeor give you insight that will make your life a little easier.

This icon tells you that you’re reading something that couldreally cause you or your company trouble.

Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 4

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Chapter 1

Understanding the ProblemIn This Chapter� Understanding the phases of eDiscovery

� Knowing where expenses come in

� Grasping the scope of the information involved in eDiscovery

Like with any business venture, you have to know themarket before you jump in and get involved. Make no

mistake — bringing eDiscovery in-house is a major undertak-ing, should you choose to initiate the process. That’s why you’re looking to understand the components and challenges now.

This chapter explains the biggest parts of the eDiscoveryprocess and shows you what costs may be involved.Understanding these issues can help you realize how takingsome of these steps in-house could be beneficial to you and your company.

The Phases of eDiscoveryThe flowchart shown in Figure 1-1 may look a little compli-cated, but it boils down to three basic steps, each of whichpresents its own challenges and costs.

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 6

Figure 1-1: The eDiscovery Flowchart.

Preservation and CollectionPreservation and collection is the process of locating poten-tially relevant documents, quarantining them so that they arenot destroyed, and bringing them together so that they caneasily be moved to the next phase in the process. Doing thiscan be tricky because several sources could contain potentialevidence.

Sources like desktop computers and servers are relativelyeasy to identify, but digital information can be spread througha host of other devices and locations that need to be consid-ered. Not only does digital information reside in e-mailaccounts, but also in archives that can be stored either on thecomputer or the server. Now factor in laptops, PDAs, smartphones, and other electronic devices. To make matters worse,IT organizations are required to create nightly backups ofmuch of this information, which means yet another copy ofeach e-mail or file exists and must be dealt with.

These electronic records contain not only the primary infor-mation but also metadata, or information about your informa-tion. This metadata establishes when the file was created,transmitted, modified, and sometimes gives information ondozens of other attributes. All of this information can be vitalwhen pursuing an eDiscovery request, especially if the case isa “who knew what and when” case, or any other case wheretiming is important. Sometimes, a party to a lawsuit or a

Electronic Discovery Reference Modelwww.edrm.net

InformationManagement Identification Production Presentation

Preservation

Processing

Collection

Review

Analysis

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government investigator challenges whether a piece of elec-tronic evidence has been tampered with — it is often by show-ing the metadata hasn’t been altered that one can establishauthenticity.

If you think of eDiscovery as a fishing expedition, the preser-vation and collection part of the trip is where you cast a widenet and try to get as many fish (or as much information) aspossible. From there, you have to take a look at what you’vecaught (and throw back what you don’t need).

ProcessingThe problem with casting a wide net is that although it bringseverything that might be relevant into the proceedings, it alsoresults in a huge amount of data that needs to be siftedthrough and evaluated. It also means that several copies ofthe same message or file could be included in the search. Ifyou think of all the places where you read your mail or docu-ments, you’ll understand where all of these copies come from.Now factor in all of the other people reading the same mes-sage or working on the same file. It should be obvious how bigof a mess this could be.

Processing the data involves using keywords, dates, file types,and custodian ownership to ensure you have the smallestsubset of data possible and then converting the documentsinto a format that is easily reviewed by attorneys and pro-duced to the concerned parties.

This phase whittles down the number of potential datasources that need to be examined and turned over. All inter-ested parties agree to the keywords and vital statistics thatwill be used in this procedure, and the results are shared inthe next step of the eDiscovery process.

Review and ProductionThe review and production phase carries the highest price tag,and is the key to understanding the financial implications ofthe eDiscovery process. The most important factor of this

Chapter 1: Understanding the Problem 7

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cost is the number of documents that your outside counselneeds to review for privilege and relevance.

The processing phase may have reduced the number of docu-ments using electronic means, but lawyers will still need toreview the documents to make sure they’re actually applica-ble to the request in question.

Your lawyers must be very careful in how they tag a docu-ment. For example, if a document or e-mail contains attorney-client privileged communication, and a lawyer inadvertentlymiscodes this document and produces it, the attorney-clientprivilege can be waived. Because of this, attorneys can onlyreview a few hundred documents a day.

Consider that 1 gigabyte of data represents perhaps 10,000documents or e-mails, and it might take an attorney a week atleast to review those documents. If that attorney is charging$300 per hour for eight hours a day and takes a week, that’s acost of almost $12,000 per gigabyte for attorneys to reviewdocuments. Now imagine your eDiscovery case contains 200gigabytes slated for attorney review! Now you understandhow the costs can rack up so quickly.

Now imagine that 75 percent of those documents could havebeen deleted before the litigation arose if the company hadproperly implemented a sound record retention policy (thinkthrowing back some of the unnecessary fish mentioned ear-lier) or filtered out by an in-house eDiscovery technologybefore they got to this expensive step in the process. Detailsabout how this phase can be handled are often the most com-pelling impetus for bringing eDiscovery in house, and are the easiest to demonstrate to other stakeholders in the organization.

Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 8

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Chapter 2

Assembling a Cross-Functional Task Force

In This Chapter� Choosing your team members

� Getting different departments to work together

� Splitting the bill effectively

Bringing a huge operation like eDiscovery in-house meansa lot more work to handle internally. The process goes

more smoothly if that work is distributed evenly and every-body involved plays her part. By splitting up this monumentaltask, eDiscovery can be accomplished more effectively with-out putting too much strain on any one person or department.

Putting the Team TogetherDepending on the size of your business, you could have several different departments with stakes in the eDiscoveryprocess. Each department has its own perspective on theproblem and how to solve it. Your legal department may becomfortable with the amount of data you have to retain, but your IT team may be shaking their heads at the amount of storage they’re required to maintain and the scheduledbackups they have to administer.

Typically, no group has the funding, the skills, or the knowl-edge necessary to solve this problem on its own. That’s whyhaving a cross-functional task force is critical. By workingtogether, each department can help produce an efficienteDiscovery effort.

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 10Above all, this group must have executive sponsorship.Without effective leadership and backing, this group could bedead in the water. A good place to start is your organization’scompliance department or officer. Your company may have agovernance risk and compliance (GRC) initiative underway.This is often the best place to start investigating how toobtain executive sponsorship. If your organization has not yetkicked off such a group or initiative, the General Counsel orCFO may be candidates for executive sponsorship.

The single largest factor in determining the eventual successor failure of this taskforce is the team makeup — manydynamics need to be understood in choosing the team mem-bers. You want to select team members that can cooperatewith each other and effectively balance their departments’needs and wants with the overall goal of the operation.

One ancillary benefit of ensuring a truly cross-functional task force is that the team has many buckets from which torequest budget money. If a particular software applicationachieves goals of two or more departments, those depart-ments may pool their resources and split the bill. There’snothing like lowering costs to make executives take noticeand approve the needed actions.

Legal Meet IT, IT Meet LegalYour legal and IT departments are probably the two mostimportant departments involved in this effort to create in-house eDiscovery. Legal has the knowledge of the eDiscoveryprocess and what needs to be done to make all of the relevantinformation available and applicable. IT has the skill andequipment to accomplish the goals of the eDiscovery process.Despite these complementary skills, though, it’s sometimeshard to get these two departments to work together. Eachdepartment has its own mindset and jargon, and each has itsown corporate culture. Sometimes, it can seem that these twogroups are diametrically opposed.

The rift between legal and IT has been narrowing recently,though. Now that the eDiscovery process is much more preva-lent, more source data is available for quantitative analysis ofwhat eDiscovery means and how much it can cost (includingthe TCO, or total cost of ownership of litigation support software

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applications). More than that, eDiscovery’s higher profilemeans everybody knows about the procedure and why it’s so important.

Another driver that brings Legal and IT together is thecommon threat of a 30(b)(6) deposition. This legal ruleenables an adversary to require a corporation to answer certain questions; the corporation must then designateemployees to answer on its behalf. In eDiscovery matters, IT personnel are almost always needed to answer questionsabout e-mail systems, backup processes, and related IT mat-ters. Because the appointed person’s answers are binding onthe company, that person must understand the process —and the lawyers want to understand the answers before thedeposition. Having the right person designated before anycase begins is therefore very important. Plus, under theamended FRCP, a similar process might take place at the“meet and confer” meeting — in the first 120 days after thecase has started!

This greater familiarity with eDiscovery bodes well for Legal/ITrelationships, because it provides a common ground withwhich to tackle these issues. In fact, many large organizationshave now put together cooperative departments called LegalIT or another similar name. These departments can reallyexpedite an organization’s ability to deal proactively witheDiscovery and related objectives. A Legal IT department creates a single reporting structure for both technologists andlegal personnel. The team’s members may come from diversebackgrounds, but they’re all working toward a common goal.This creates an atmosphere of teamwork and fosters problem-solving. The group is typically led by a senior professional,known as a Director of eDiscovery. Typically this is an individ-ual who has gone to law school as well as having a back-ground in technology. This person can often speak both“languages.” (For more on communications, see Chapter 3.)

Not all companies are large enough to support such an organizational change, and sometimes such a shift just isn’tpossible. In those instances, task forces are the next bestthing. Pulling together the right people from different depart-ments can go far toward making your eDiscovery efforts suc-cessful. Executive sponsorship can go a long way in fosteringteamwork and unselfishness as well. The right leader can pulltogether these members and make working toward a commongoal a lot easier and more rewarding.

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Records ManagementRecords management means a lot more than just organizingpapers into boxes and throwing them into a dusty storage bin.Keeping track of every little piece of an organization’s vitalinformation is an important and necessary part of business,and it involves many high-tech solutions. Today’s environ-ment of regulation, compliance, and eDiscovery challengesmeans that corporate record managers are more importantthan ever, and they have to be involved in all levels of theeDiscovery process.

At the beginning of the eDiscovery explosion, it became clearthat proper records management could drastically reducecosts downstream. For example, DuPont conducted a casestudy for one of its large litigations. In this one example,DuPont reviewed approximately 75 million pages of text at acost of $24 million. When the case closed, the company per-formed a post-mortem to determine which of those recordswere past the date they were supposed to be deleted, per thecompany’s records retention policy. DuPont found that 50 per-cent of the records were retained in violation of its policy. Inother words, DuPont spent $12 million paying attorneys to sitin a room and review documents for privilege when those doc-uments could have been legally destroyed had the company’srecords retention policy been in full force. Companies usuallytake notice when your study shows that a multimillion dollareffort could be cut in half.

Most companies are frustrated when they investigate how to apply their records retention policy to electronic records,though. Their policies may have been written long ago, whenthe volume of records paled in comparison to today. Somerecords retention policies may have thousands of types ofrecords defined. This presents great difficulty when “teach-ing” technology to analyze billions of records — determiningwhich class a record belongs to may be close to impossible.Re-evaluating and updating these policies can be a daunting task.

Fortunately, it’s possible to both update and simplify recordsretention policies. Doing so makes it easier for technology toprocess the information and humans to review the findings.Because of this, involving a records retention specialist in thetask force is very important.

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Human ResourcesEven though human resources professionals are separatefrom the Legal or IT departments, their connection to elec-tronic records makes them an integral part of efforts to bringeDiscovery in-house. HR departments typically find them-selves needing to perform internal investigations stemmingfrom complaints of harassment or discrimination, violationsof acceptable use of company equipment policies, and otherinternal matters involving electronic records. They often need to restore e-mail and documents for many employees,sometimes even from those who have long since left the com-pany. They also have to examine records and search for possi-ble violations of corporate policy. This process is not unlikeeDiscovery. In fact, when the task force eventually decideswhat applications to buy for future eDiscovery collections, HR may wish to participate and even contribute some of theirbudget that is earmarked for investigatory tools.

SecurityJust as their name implies, security is charged with makingsure that everything from the actual physical place of busi-ness to all of the materials and data inside that company’ssystems are kept safe. Protecting from the loss of tradesecrets is a key initiative in most corporate security depart-ments these days. Imagine if a top sales rep leaves a companyfor a competitor and takes with him a complete pricelist and territory plan that includes details of prospects and customers, complete with contact information. The financialimpact is nearly incalculable.

Many security organizations are charged with performing“surveillance” on their networks to identify instances of inappropriate storing of such information on shared networkdrives or desktops. Other security or compliance groups mayneed to scan for the presence of personal health information,Social Security numbers, or personal credit information onany manner of electronic devices. These critical documentsneed to be in a true document management system, and notfloating free on desktops and fileshares.

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Crawling fileshares for data and analyzing and quarantiningfiles based on content is extremely similar to preservation in eDiscovery. Often, the tools that enable the security andeDiscovery personnel to do their jobs are exactly the same. Acompany can purchase the necessary tools and allow multipledepartments to make use of them — sharing costs, expertise,and maybe even personnel. This is another prime opportunityfor budget-pooling and collaboration.

Lines of BusinessIt didn’t take long for organizations to figure out how to“charge back” eDiscovery costs to the lines of business thatown the underlying problems. For example, a product liabilitycase stemming from the poor engineering of a product is relatively easy to correlate with a certain product line within a company. That department might then be held responsiblefor the additional eDiscovery costs.

There are a few ways to work the costs of eDiscovery intobusiness operations:

� Some organizations simply pay for litigation costs out of their reserves

� Some file claims with insurance agencies

� Some charge back the costs to the responsible department(s)

If the corporation is going to adopt this approach, then it is critical that the lines of business be represented on thetaskforce as they likely will need to make prevention versustreatment decisions based on return on investment (ROI)analysis. In other words, the departments can offer advice on the best way to manage costs involved in eDiscovery andplan for eventual problems in the future. It’s better to plan for these matters now than to get hit down the road.

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Chapter 3

Communication: Can’t WeAll Just Get Along?

In This Chapter� Eliminating roadblocks to communication

� Understanding different departments and jobs

� Standardizing the terminology used in the eDiscovery process

Each type of business has an accepted vocabulary, a collection of terms familiar to those in the business. This

vocabulary may not make sense to the outside world, but ithelps those people in that business communicate quickly andeffectively. Even departments within that business developtheir own verbal and written shorthand (ask your techiefriends about an id10t code and see what they say). BringingeDiscovery in-house means getting departments to put asidetheir own forms of communication and connect with eachother effectively. Proper communication is the foundation toacting cross functionally. This chapter discusses several waysto increase the effectiveness of cross-border communications.

Skipping the Slang, Junking theJargon, Axing the Acronyms

Nothing turns a listener off more quickly than when a speakeruses hard-to-understand language. Imagine a conversationbetween a lawyer and an IT professional:

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 16Lawyer: Can you capture personal e-mails from ouremployees if those messages are sent from a companycomputer?

IT professional: The application layer monitors SMTPtraffic, but it cannot monitor HTTP traffic.

Lawyer: You confuse and frighten me.

Even a noted master of obscure terminology like a lawyer hasa hard time with this IT talk. You can see that little is beingcommunicated. But what if the IT pro tries another response:

Lawyer: Can you capture personal e-mails from ouremployees if those messages are sent from a companycomputer?

IT professional: We can capture e-mails if they aresent from a program on the computer, such as OutlookExpress or Eudora. If they are sent using a Web-basede-mail system like Hotmail or Gmail, then we probablycan’t get it. However, we can block our employees fromusing this type of e-mail account.

Lawyer: Thank you. Let’s institute this policyand obtain lunch.

This is real progress being made.

Similarly, an IT professional’s eyes may glaze over if a lawyersays “Zubulake states we need to keep all data to avoid spoliation, even if we are going to make a 26(b) ‘not reason-ably accessible’ argument.” This is an unacceptable level oflegal jargon.

The lawyer will gain more friends by instead saying “Judgeshave fined other companies who didn’t preserve their backuptapes. We may never need to touch them, but we need to keepthem.” In this case, the team is off to the right start.

The overall message here is that all team members involved in the eDiscovery process need to translate their normal busi-ness language into terms that the average layman can under-stand. If all team members make a conscious effort to explainand clarify their points of view, the process will move morequickly and all the bases will be covered.

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Spend Some Quality Time Together

Relationships are important for the eDiscovery task force, justas in any other group. Each team member needs to trust theother team members and be assured the others aren’t beingterritorial or selfish. The team must have regular meetingsand plan strategies in advance, as opposed to only gatheringwhen a crisis hits and damage needs to be controlled.

These meetings should offer everyone a chance to brief theteam as to new developments in their areas, both internally aswell as in the marketplace at large. Because it’s important foreverybody to tend to their normal job responsibilities, youmay have to look for time outside the normal work day tohold these gatherings. Consider happy hours and retreats asinformal venues that tend to foster personal relationships.

The digital age also makes other avenues available for infor-mation sharing. The eDiscovery task force can use its ownnewsletter, electronic messageboards, or virtual meetingspaces to further its goals. This allows team members to learnat their own pace or at long distances from others, if need be.

Legal Can Learn IT’s LingoEven with team members working on simplifying their termi-nology, there’s no substitute for knowledge. Taking the time toeducate the team about other departments and their respon-sibilities can go a long way in managing the implementation ofnew policies.

In addition to learning about the basic tasks and responsibili-ties of the IT department, the legal team members can alsoimprove their understanding of the processes the IT depart-ment uses in its normal daily activities. Several reputable vendors can conduct workshops at your company’s site thatenable this kind of education.

eDiscovery is both a legal problem and a business processproblem. Six Sigma is a very popular business process

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improvement methodology embraced by most large organiza-tions and held in high regard in most IT organizations (formore on Six Sigma, see Chapter 7). Learning this content at ahigh level can help the legal team express itself in terms moreeasily understood by IT professionals.

Take, for example, a conversation between a lawyer and an IT professional regarding a misunderstanding on recordsretention times. Stating to that IT professional that “We needto have a serious meeting about making sure this never hap-pens again” is likely to elicit a negative or defensive response,causing problems between team members and maybe hinder-ing the implementation of needed policies. If the lawyer tries a different take on the situations and says “This process is a good candidate for a Kaizen,” he will probably elicit acooperative response.

Even if the IT department doesn’t follow the Six Sigmaprocess, it can still be helpful to the lawyers to talk with themabout their business process and understand what goes intomaking decisions and implementing their policies. That kindof understanding can be quite beneficial to all involved.

Both printed and digital materials can be helpful in providingdefinitions for technical terms. Plenty of resources exist, ranging from technical Web sites to the more ubiquitousWikipedia that can be helpful in clarifying terminology. Makingfrequent use of these resources can be helpful in making communication easier.

IT Can Learn Legal’s LingoTurnabout is fair play, after all. Having the IT departmentlearn some basic legal terminology and concepts will go along way toward making communication easier. IT folk mayknow which drives and tapes need to be retained, but know-ing why they have to be held for so long can be helpful.

The first step is learning some of the basics of eDiscovery.Again, this is where print and digital resources can be of great value. A great place to start is The Sedona Conference.The Sedona Conference is a world-renowned organization dedicated to providing guidance on issues related to

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eDiscovery. Many illuminating whitepapers can be down-loaded for free from their Web site at www.thesedonaconference.org.

For a small fee, a glossary can be downloaded that containsvirtually all the eDiscovery and even technical terms com-monly used in the process. It is an excellent idea for organiza-tions to purchase this glossary and use it to standardize theirterminology, which will help workers avoid misunderstand-ings. Not only does this help eliminate jargon, but it giveseverybody a common set of terms to use in implementingeDiscovery.

It may be helpful for the legal department to put together asmall presentation on the specific legal issues involved witheDiscovery and how they apply to the company at large.Localizing the eDiscovery process to their specific situationcan help them understand the process easily.

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Chapter 4

Taking It In or Leaving It Outside

In This Chapter� Understanding the eDiscovery phases

� Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks to bringing these phases in-house

� Making the best decision for your company in terms of cost andintegrity

As discussed in Chapter 1, eDiscovery can be brokendown into different phases. Your company may have the

resources to bring all of those phases in-house, or you mayhave to pick and choose what your team has the time andresources to handle on its own. You can choose to bring in all decision-making and physical hosting and handling, or you can leave the latter phases to a vendor, consultant, or law firm and oversee what happens to the data. You can bringeDiscovery in-house in many ways, and each phase has itsown specific considerations that you must keep in mind when deciding.

Making Up Your Mind aboutPreservation and Collection

Preservation and collection is the phase of eDiscovery mostfrequently brought in-house. Because this process involvesidentifying, locating, collecting, and preserving data that’salready under the control of the IT organization, it’s an obvious candidate.

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 22For example, certain IT personnel access data from e-mailservers almost every day. Having them retrieve some datafrom those archives is much less costly than having outsideconsultants or technicians come in and do it. It can be terriblyexpensive and disruptive to bring in outside consultants ifthere’s a large store of data like a RAID (redundant array ofinexpensive disks) setup. It can also be a problem if the data must then be delivered to another location for furtherprocessing (which defeats the internalization of any furthereDiscovery processes).

However, outside consultants may be ideal in several circumstances, such as those outlined in this list:

� If the data involved is on a large number of personal computers and not on any centrally located electronicdevices

� If the consultant’s office location helps you to avoid further charges, like travel fees

� If your targets are not at your company’s headquarters

� If the nature of the case is so sensitive that having a neutral or quasi-neutral third party may help show a court how seriously you’ve taken the matter

More than likely, you will find it to be more efficient to bringthe data hosting and collection in-house for this phase. You’llhave to evaluate your own costs and needs, of course, butyour data and records are already in your possession. It’s justa matter of making sure they’re stored and filed correctly.Keep in mind that a careful eye should be kept on the preser-vation phase, because it’s an activity you get only one chanceto get right. Once a record is lost or deleted, it’s gone. Thereare no do-overs.

This is further complicated by the fact that a large organiza-tion may have dozens of outside counsel and hundreds orthousands of holds to manage. Many have found great relief inthe eDiscovery realm by consolidating the list of preferredoutside counsel, and utilizing state-of-the-art software applica-tions to manage all the litigation holds. These two steps candrastically decrease the amount of errors or omissions in thepreservation and collection phases of eDiscovery.

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Deciding What to Do with Processing

Processing is another phase of eDiscovery ideal for bringingin-house. It’s a relatively low-risk proposition, because thisphase typically uses working copies of data instead of theactual data itself. If there were an error or other problem with the working copies, the data could theoretically bereprocessed. As long as proper care is taken to preserve meta-data, or information about the data (like time and date createdor modified and the users who accessed the file), the copiesshould work in the processing phase.

The infrastructure and applications necessary to bring thisphase in-house aren’t prohibitively expensive, whereas ven-dors often have fairly expensive fees per-gigabyte in this area.Tasks like de-duplication (where duplicate records from sev-eral different sources are condensed to decrease the amountof data that needs to be reviewed by lawyers), keywordsearching, and load file preparation (files used to bring datainto several common programs) can now be done in-house forpennies on the dollar. This is a phase where both the decision-making process and the actual data handling should definitelybe brought in-house. You retain control of the process andsave a great deal of money at the same time.

Large volumes of data may require the attention of outsidevendors, because such organizations could be the only oneswith the resources to handle those mass quantities of infor-mation. Courts aren’t likely to look favorably on delays intheir proceeding because you can’t dig through your recordsin time. Also, if the case is so sensitive that it will requiresomeone to testify as to the steps taken to avoid data loss, it may be advisable to rely on outside experts.

Making the Decision on Review and Production

Three aspects to the review and production phase requireanalysis and attention. This section discusses all three.

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The review processMany companies have been burned by outside counsel (whoweren’t savvy in eDiscovery) demanding that the review beconducted in a costly manner. For example, some companiesmay have paid millions of dollars to make TIFF images (oreven print out reams) of junk e-mails. Others may have had torepeat their document review because co-counsel didn’t sharea common review platform (a program or service that containsthe data in question and allows it to be examined), or theyweren’t able to give access to each other. As you can imagine,the time needed to re-review the data doesn’t come cheaply.

These problems explain why it is critical that the reviewprocess be designed internally, and that the decisions regard-ing review tools and methodology be made in-house. There islittle risk here, other than the dangers of choosing a reviewplatform that slows down the reviewers, doesn’t utilize cutting-edge technology like native file reviews, or that lacks the abil-ity to review the files and their metadata in their original stateas opposed to copies made on different media, like papercopies.

Hosting data in the review toolHosting and reviewing data could potentially be very expen-sive if not brought in-house. When loaded into the review tool,your information might carry with it an initial cost of $1,000per gigabyte for loading and processing, and another $150 pergigabyte per month to sit in the review tool’s repository. Thiscost is incurred even if your information isn’t being touched.Pricewise, it makes sense to look at bringing this process intoyour organization.

However, doing so isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s criti-cal that the IT department can support the application bothinside your company and out, because parties outside of yourorganization will use it. It’s imperative that the application issecure, as you’ll need to manage access to the data. Outsidecounsel may need to see the information, but nobody elseshould be able to see your sensitive data.

Next, the infrastructure must be able to support a high“uptime” percentage. Speaking plainly, that means that those

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using the platform have to be able to get access whenever andwherever needed.

Disaster recovery and business continuity must be consid-ered as well. Can the IT department guarantee that, in case offire, flood, power surges, or other problems, the data will beavailable? Will they still be able to support their normal tasksat the same time, or will additional help be necessary? Also,who will handle support for users who need help at 3 a.m.(which often happens with large document reviews)?

If all of these questions can be answered to your (and yourbudget’s) satisfaction, then licensing review tools internallyand hosting the data yourself will save a great deal of money.It will also allow for repeatable business processes andincrease collaboration between inside counsel, outside counsel, and co-counsel.

The actual review of documentsYour legal department isn’t likely to have enough lawyers to review documents in large eDiscovery cases. Aside fromexpanding the number of lawyers in your department, youcan’t do much to change this situation.

However, owning the review process itself can certainly help.For example, if a corporation has “contract reviewers” hired,your law firm can use them at a lower cost than any associ-ates that might be employed by outside counsel. Contractingthose reviewers ahead of time allows you to maintain a firmergrasp on review costs. Also, having preferred tools andvendor lists that your outside counsel must abide by can be extremely helpful in several ways. You can:

� Standardize on a tool, ensuring data can be reused.

� Optimize your buying power by consolidating all of yourprojects with one vendor — with pre-negotiated pricing.

� Choose tools that best lend themselves to your data. Forexample if you have a lot of CAD drawings, a tool with anative file emulator may save your outside counsel fromhaving to TIFF everything or buy expensive CAD licenses

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While owning the process used to review documents is advan-tageous, it is probably not a good idea to actually conductthe review of documents (determining which documents areprivileged and responsive). Outside counsel will need to makerepresentations to the court about assertions of privilege andso forth, so it might be best leave to leave this to them. Youmay consider mandating your outside counsel to use contractreviewers if this is an option.

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Chapter 5

Selling the Vision InternallyIn This Chapter� Using real-life examples to show the seriousness of eDiscovery

� Illustrating the savings of bringing eDiscovery in-house

After you have a plan in place to bring eDiscovery phasesinside your company’s operations, you probably have

to sell somebody else on that plan to get it done. Unless, ofcourse, you own your business, in which case we commendyou for your foresight. If that’s not the situation, this chapteroffers some strategic options for you.

Using Scare TacticsUnfortunately, many employees throughout large organiza-tions don’t understand how serious issues like eDiscoveryand records retention really are. Thus, they may wish to putthese projects a little farther down on the priority list. It’syour job to push them a little higher, and that may involvescaring a few folks.

There’s nothing like a good cautionary tale to make corporateexecutives realize that they don’t want to be like the last company to fall into problems. Letting your higher-ups knowabout these mistakes and missteps can go a long way in fur-thering your cause. You don’t have to look far for examplesyou can use.

Think of maintaining a business justification document thatbolsters your case, circulating a regular newsletter, or a “hallof shame” exhibit of eDiscovery or compliance snafus. Makesure it circulates widely through the organization, especially

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 28among the executives you’re targeting. Make sure to keepyour organization up to speed on the pitfalls in this arena soleaders can make informed decisions regarding prioritization,sponsorship, funding, and the proper focus on eDiscoveryissues.

You may also want to take the time to tailor some of your doc-uments to specific departments. Electronic storage storiesmay be more effective for the IT department, whereas exam-ples of outrageous costs or prolonged legal issues may bemore in tune for legal and executive personnel. Know youraudience, and you’ll get better results.

Pooling Resources: ROI Return on investment, or ROI, is a business planning tool thataids in decision support. Essentially, two alternatives are considered in a decision-making instance:

� The status quo

� Investing in an alternative product or service

A product might require a $20 investment, but that investmentwill save $40 in other costs that were previously unavoidable.The ROI in this case is compelling and the product should bepurchased. A little money up front can save more moneydown the road.

Point out that bringing certain phases of eDiscovery insidethe business will equal savings down the road. In today’s business climate, eDiscovery costs are unavoidable.

Suppose that IT could implement a new procedure, using aprogram purchased by the company, that more effectivelyretained e-mail records and de-duplicated messages, making iteasier to review and produce eDiscovery information. Thatsoftware purchase and extra IT labor may cost a little bit moreinitially, but it will reduce the potential costs of hiring addi-tional associates or lawyers down the road. If that programcould effectively reduce e-mail volume by 50 percent, the ROIcan be calculated by determining the cost savings in attorneyreview fees for that data.

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It also means you won’t have to hire an outside vendor tomanage the process for you.

Another factor to consider in your ROI calculations is time.How long will it take to obtain this return on investment? Ifthe software package produces the savings over 20 years, itmight be less compelling than an alternative that delivers savings over the span of a few months. You’ll have to balancenot only the money returned, but also the time it takes to getthat return.

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Chapter 6

Building an ImplementationPlan

In This Chapter� Getting your plan together

� Selling your plan to the executives

� Evaluating and changing the plan down the road

Any way you put it, eDiscovery can be a difficult issue tounderstand. It is critical that this very complex subject

be expressed in a way so that executives (likely the ultimatedecision makers for large investments) can quickly and easily understand the cost-versus-benefit analysis. You shouldalso be ready to show how and when the plan will be imple-mented and how you will be involved. Finally, you want to be able to demonstrate how this plan can be reviewed andchanged as need be down the road.

Starting from Square OneBefore you can present the plan, you have to actually get theplan together. Remember, this plan should include:

� An outline of the benefits achieved by implementing the plan

� The personnel involved

� The new programs or services needed

� The timeline for the implementation

� The goals involved in that implementation

� The final cost of the program

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 32Make sure that you’ve got all of the elements of your plantogether, and include any contingencies that may occur.Planning ahead at this stage means you’ve avoided a lot ofproblems down the road.

Project ManagementOther than the makeup of the team, the next most importantfactor in ensuring the success of this project is solid project management. This project will have many moving parts, and it will require input from many concerned parties. Given theimportance of eDiscovery, be aware that you’re handling ahigh-stakes project.

Consider involving a certified PMP Project Manager from yourIT organization. This person will be familiar with the use ofGantt charts, Visio workflow documents, and other tools thatwill keep the team and the executives updated as to the status of the project. This person has the abilities necessary to maintain oversight over the project and keep everything ontrack. Think of her as the trail boss for your cattle drive.

Establishing a TimelineWhen you’re making a change of this magnitude, you need tobe able to keep things on track. You also need to let every-body know how long this change will take so that reasonableexpectations can be met and the team members can see thelight at the end of the tunnel.

Make sure you establish how much time you’re going to need,and build in a little additional time for the inevitable overagesand pitfalls that come along in life. It’ll be great if you’re finished ahead of schedule, but you don’t want to be caughtunprepared. Remember, that’s part of what you’re trying toavoid with this plan in the first place.

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Setting Milestones for Your PlanYou may know the end result that you want your plan toachieve, but you also need to know what steps along the way make that result possible, and in what order those stepsneed to happen. Milestones will help you recognize what’sgoing on with your plan at a certain time, and what still needs to be done to keep things on track.

For example, suppose your overall goal is to bring data collection and review in-house. You’ll want to know whenthese steps will occur:

� Funds are available for purchase of new software and hardware.

� Team members are chosen and in place for your taskforce.

� IT staff is trained on new equipment.

� Legal has reviewed and signed off on the plan.

� Software and hardware are installed and functional.

� System has been tested and approved by IT.

� Data is ready for recovery and use by all interested parties.

Establish a date for each milestone, and you’ll be able to keepyour plan on track (or see when it’s behind schedule and actto get everything going again).

Paying for Your PlanPart of ROI (return on investment) is making sure the initialinvestment gets made. Your plan should include a completecost breakdown, including software, hardware, salaries, consulting fees, and any other expense that might be included

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in implementing your plan (your Starbucks habit should notbe included here). Make sure your budget includes someheadroom for expenses that will arise if you have to deal withunscheduled problems.

Training the StaffBoth your taskforce and any other personnel involved will be taking on new tasks and responsibilities. Make sure theyhave the tools and training they need to execute any newduties that result from your plan. Remember — eDiscovery is a new and rapidly changing field for most employees, especially if they’ve never had to worry about it before. Bymaking training available, you’re preparing your company for a smooth transition.

Before visions of costly classrooms fill your head, rememberthat the same digital technology that makes eDiscovery more manageable also makes educating your employeesabout it easier and more cost-effective. Research the availableresources online and look at distance learning and in-housetraining sessions that keep your employees on-site and learning.

Review and EvaluationAfter the plan is underway, you’ll want to hold regular meetingsand receive status reports on how the implementation is going.This is where having a project manager is especially important.That person will be able to keep her focus on the plan andmaintain oversight over the entire scope of the project.

Based on your milestones and goals, you’ll be able to seewhat’s going on and what needs to be changed. Keep thefocus on the overall goal and make the changes necessary to implement your final plan.

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Chapter 7

Working with a Quality Policy

In This Chapter� Looking at Six Sigma

� Examining in-house quality policies

A quality policy isn’t a policy that’s “real good.” A qualitypolicy is an organization-wide policy that dictates how

your organization will plan, manage, and then control qualityin all projects. This policy sets the expectations for your projects, and everyone else’s, for metrics of acceptability.

Quality policies fall under the big umbrella of quality assur-ance (QA). QA is an organization-wide program, the goal ofwhich is to improve quality and to prevent mistakes. Thosegoals integrate well with the goals of eDiscovery, where quality assurance is more important than ever, so it’s a natural fit that these two programs coincide.

The quality policy can be written by the geniuses within your organization, or your organization may follow a qualitysystem and the proven quality approaches within these systems. Either way, you’ll have a framework in place to helpyou implement the changes you need in your business,whether they relate to eDiscovery or not.

Slipping into the Sixth SigmaUnless you’ve been living in a cave the past few years, you’veno doubt heard of Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a procedure thatstrives to reduce waste and errors, and constantly improve

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Bringing eDiscovery In-House For Dummies 36quality through the services and deliverables an organizationproduces.

People trust the trial-and-error process. They try something,learn from their mistakes, and move on from there. Six Sigma,however, focuses on preventing the mistakes from enteringthe process in the first place; this is quality assurance. Prevent-ing problems is critical in eDiscovery, because once a mistakehappens, it might be too late!

The Six Sigma program was invented by the smart folks atMotorola during the 1980s. Their creation paid off with anincrease in profits, customer satisfaction, and quality awards.Their program went on to be adapted as a standard for quality assurance by the American Society of Quality (ASQ).Visit ASQ at www.asq.org. Motorola also received theMalcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1988 for their Six Sigma methodology.

Figure 7-1 shows the range of possibilities for sigma. Accordingto ASQ, most organizations perform at three to four sigma,where they drop anywhere between 20 and 30 percent of theirrevenue due to a lack of quality. If a company can perform at Six Sigma, it only allows 3.4 defects per million opportunities —which might mean per million documents reviewed.

The primary points of Six Sigma are

� We don’t know what we don’t know. Makes sense, right? A lack of knowledge keeps organizations trappedin their current environment, losing revenue, and preventing progress.

� We don’t do what we don’t know. If you don’t knowwhat you should be doing you can’t do it.

� We won’t know until we measure. Aha! The real actionin Six Sigma is to measure in order to improve.

� We don’t measure what we don’t value. Six Sigma looksat what does and does not need to be measured, andthen prompts the developer or project manager to actaccordingly. If you value your programmers’ time, yoursoftware’s errors, and your customer satisfaction, you’llmeasure them all.

� We don’t value what we don’t measure. This is a call toaction! What should you be measuring that you’re not?

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Figure 7-1: Organizations operating at the Sixth Sigma allow only 3.4defects per million.

Using Homegrown, In-HouseQuality Solutions

You don’t have to follow any prepackaged approach to qualityin order to create quality. Your organization may have its own internal quality program that you and your project teammust follow. And that’s just fine.

Sometimes in-house programs are more fluid than the rigidprograms from outside organizations. The danger, of course, isthat a fluid approach may also be seen as a passive approach.The project manager must commit to the in-house qualitypolicy and demand that the project team do the same.

Any and all in-house solutions should have the followingattributes:

� A written document that details the organization’s quality management approach. Verbal policies don’tcount.

0-1-2-3 321

Mean

Rela

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frequ

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Sigma from Mean

One Sigma from Mean

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� A defined system to identify quality, and identified procedures for performing a quality audit. A qualityaudit proves that a project has followed the qualitypolicy.

� Metrics and procedures on how to perform qualitycontrol (QC). QC is inspection driven, and the proce-dures may vary among disciplines within an organization.

� A boilerplate quality management plan that all projectsuse to guide project planning, execution, and comple-tion. The quality management plan sets the rules of howa project should perform and defines the expectations of the project manager to achieve the expected quality.

� Procedures on how to update, change, or challenge the quality management plan. This is an important component because there will likely be circumstancesthat require the quality plan to flex, change, or evolve. If the quality management plan doesn’t define this procedure, then you may fall victim to the old adage: The reason we’re doing it this way is because we’vealways done it this way.

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Notes

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Notes

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Before a subpoena hits, build efficient, proactive, and repeatable business processes for eDiscovery and practical records and information management. With EMC® technology and solutions, you’ll move your organization to secure, enterprise-class, policy-based information management, de-duplication, forensically sound search, collection and preservation, and assured deletion. The result: Costs and risk go down, responsiveness goes up.

Visit www.EMC.com/ediscovery for a practical approach to addressing eDiscovery challenges.

When information comes together, your infrastructure is litigation-ready.

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EMC® Information Policy Management Workshops and the EMC Assessment for Reten-tion and eDiscovery strategically position your organization to meet your legal obliga-tions. We apply experience, expertise, and best practices from countless engagements to your specific needs so you can be confident you’re focused on the right solutions.

For more information, visit www.EMC.com/ediscovery.

Focus on bringing eDiscovery in-house with an EMC workshop or assessment.

Re-examineeDiscovery

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About EMCInformation is a business’s most important asset. EMC provides the tools that can help you capitalize on it. By bringing our systems, software, services, and solutions together, we can work with you to put a comprehensive information infrastructure to work for your business.

We help customers design, build, and manage intelligent, flexible, and secure information infrastructures. These infrastructures are the versatile foundations on which organizations can implement their information lifecycle strategies, secure their critical information assets, leverage their content for competitive advantage, automate their data center operations, reduce power and cooling costs, and much more.

With an information infrastructure, people can avoid the potentially serious risks and reduce the significant costs associated with managing information, while fully exploiting its value for business advantage.

We help a range of customersEMC works with organizations around the world, in every industry, in the public and private sectors, and of every size, from startups to the Fortune Global 500. Our customers include banks and other financial services firms, manufacturers, healthcare and life sciences organizations, Internet service and telecommunications providers, airlines and transportation companies, educational institutions, and public-sector agencies. Customers benefit from our expertise in key business and IT capabilities.

EMC helps customers meet critical business challenges with a comprehensive set of offerings that include:

• Solutions — We have assembled the right mix of products and services from our own offerings and those of our partners to address a variety of specifi c situations. Our solutions meet the challenges faced by different industries, functional situations, and different-sized businesses.

• Services — We offer the full range of services to design, build, and implement your information infrastructure, including comprehensive consulting services, implementation and integration, onsite operational support, as well as industry-leading training and customer support.

• Software — We provide the industry’s broadest, most robust line of information infrastructure software for addressing business challenges such as: archiving, backup and recovery, business continuity and availability, collaboration, content management, data mobility and migration, resource management, compliance, and virtualization.

• Systems — We offer the industry’s broadest line of tiered storage platforms and technologies, providing a comprehensive range of performance, scalability, functionality, and connectivity options.

Strong leadership recordEMC has a long tradition of innovation and leadership. During 2006, we invested nearly $4 billion in Research & Development and strategic acquisitions that strengthened our core capabilities and extended our reach into new, rapidly growing markets.

This commitment led to IDC’s designation of EMC as a market leader in the external storage systems, total storage software, and virtualization software markets. According to the Gartner Magic Quadrants, we lead the industry in enterprise content management, midrange enterprise disk arrays, storage resource management, security and information and event management, Web access management, and storage services. We hold the most stringent quality management certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 9001), and our manufacturing operations hold an MRP II Class A certification.

A worldwide presence and global citizenshipWe are represented by more than 100 sales offices and distribution partners in more than 80 countries. We employ more than 33,000 people worldwide, including more than 8,500 at our Massachusetts headquarters. Our R+D organization includes facilities in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Belgium, China, France, India, Israel, Japan, and Russia, with additional manufacturing facilities in California and Ireland. We have the world’s largest storage-dedicated direct sales and service force, and have a large network both of resellers, including Dell, Unisys, and NCR; and alliance partners, including Accenture, EDS, and Microsoft.

We are committed to acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and to being an attentive and thoughtful neighbor in our local and global communities. We are a publicly traded company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and are a component of the S&P 500 Index.

This book helps you analyze the issues surrounding in-house eDiscovery, so that you can determine what is right for your organization. You’ll see what processes can effectively be brought into your operation, and what challenges you’ll face in implementing those changes. You need to understand as much as you can before you start making decisions!

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Explanations in plain English

“Get in, get out” information

Icons and other navigational aids

Top ten lists

A dash of humor and fun

Analyze the needs of your business

Understand the eDiscovery phases

Calculate the savings and costs of bringing eDiscovery in-house

Grasp the scope of the information involved in eDiscovery

Choose your team members

Get different departments to work together and eliminate roadblocks to communication